Emergency services spent hours searching luggage on the runway at Shannon yesterday afternoon, while passengers were also forced to spend long spells outside, having disembarked from the aircraft.

It is understood that messages were written on a mirror and a door in the toilets of the plane, warning of a bomb. Once the passengers were taken off, sniffer dogs searched the luggage while a subsequent visual search was carried out. Samples of handwriting were also taken from those on board.

Passengers spent the night in local hotels and it is understood many of them missed onward connections as a result of the delay.

Owen Ryan

]]>56000Flight diverts to Shannon after bomb scarehttps://clarechampion.ie/flight-diverts-to-shannon-after-bomb-scare/
Mon, 11 Jun 2018 15:54:04 +0000http://clarechampion.ie/?p=55994A UNITED Airlines flight from Rome to Chicago has diverted to Shannon this afternoon due to a bomb scare.

It is understood that an anti American slogan was written on a mirror in a bathroom of the aircraft. Furthermore, there was a mention of a bomb being on board.

The airport has remained open. At the time of writing the passengers have left the aircraft and many of them are on the tarmac outside the plane. The plane has been parked some distance away from the terminal building.

]]>55994Gardaí save baby Holly’s lifehttps://clarechampion.ie/gardai-save-baby-hollys-life/
Thu, 12 Apr 2018 12:19:23 +0000http://clarechampion.ie/?p=55288THE parents of a newborn baby who received emergency intervention at Ennis Garda Station last week have told The Clare Champion that they want the gardaí to know how “eternally grateful” they are.

As Amanda Carmody and Michael Coughlin sit comfortably in their living room, watching their 17-day-old baby Holly sleep soundly in their arms, they say Garda Ken Butler and Garda Patrick McCormack “were absolutely incredible”, when they arrived into the station on Wednesday evening last.

“Everyone was fantastic. We want the gardaí to know how eternally grateful we are. They were absolutely incredible and we want to let people know that they are there to help, and they were absolutely fantastic,” Amanda said.

She explained that the couple had been in town with Holly on Wednesday last and were walking out Newbridge Road in Lifford, having come over the Club Bridge from town, when they noticed something wasn’t right.

“We were just down by where MT Pockets used to be and we heard this little screech from the buggy. We looked in and Holly’s nasal passages were all clogged with, like, clotted milk or formula. She wasn’t really frothing at the mouth but there was really thick, syrupy saliva. We took her out and she was gasping for air,” Amanda outlined.

She explained that what really frightened them was that the baby stiffened when she was lifted out of the buggy.

“Once I took her out, she just went stiff. She went red and purple in the face and blue around her mouth and stopped breathing. We turned her on her stomach and started patting her on the back. She did let out a bit of a screech so she was breathing again at this point but she was struggling for breath.

“Then Michael said, ‘let’s run to the garda station’, so he ran ahead of me and told them we were coming and our baby wasn’t breathing,” Amanda said.

Michael explained why he decided bringing her to the garda station was the best thing they could do in that moment.

“She was struggling and she went stiff and I was going to ring for an ambulance but then I spotted the garda station and I thought, well, they are an emergency service, we might as well run there first and, if they can’t help, they can probably get an ambulance quicker than we could if we rang ourselves,” he said.

They described the efforts of the gardaí on duty that day as “fantastic” and spoke highly of efforts made by Garda Ken Butler, who kept them calm while administering assistance to their then nine-day-old baby.

“Garda Ken Butler took Holly from me. At this stage, I was holding her face down, patting her back, trying to free her airways. He was fantastic, he was so calm. He talked us through everything he was going to do, and that he was going to do the baby Heimlich or back slaps. He had Holly and he was hitting her on the back and then he had a little oxygen tube and he was holding it in front of her face. He told us what he was hoping for was to hear her cry and that a noisy baby was a happy baby. He did another pattern of back slaps and, at that point, Holly started to cry. The whole thing took about 20 minutes from the time we arrived in the buggy. He was very reassuring and everyone was great,” Amanda said.

Garda Patrick McCormack, from Ballinasloe, who is a recent graduate from the Garda College and has been stationed at Ennis for the past four months, was among those tending to the couple and Holly. He said, “I was never as glad to hear a baby cry before.”

Holly’s parents said they are delighted to report that their baby girl is doing very well again and that she is absolutely “perfect”. They said Holly was kept in hospital for three nights as a precaution but that all tests came back clear and she was given a clean bill of health.

“Holly was a section baby and the hospital reckons that it was probably a mucus block [that caused her breathing difficulty], which is quite common. They can’t guarantee that was what it was but all the tests were clear,” Amanda continued.

She explained that when the ambulance arrived, Holly was doing ok.

“I was just changing her nappy and her colour was starting to come back. She was very shook. By the time we got in the ambulance, she was just so knackered, she slept the whole way. She’s perfect again. We just want to thank everyone for what they did. They didn’t say what would have happened without that intervention but, if it wasn’t cleared and if she was deprived of oxygen [it wouldn’t have been good]. They didn’t tell us because we had been through enough,” she said.

It turned out very lucky for Holly that Red Cross volunteer Garda Ken Butler hadn’t clocked off duty on the day.

Garda Butler said, “I was in the office and Garda McCormack’s sergeant, Mark, who knew my qualifications, came and got me and told me that a baby had presented to the public office and was choking. I went over and Michael and Amanda were at the public counter with Holly. She was breathing but she was coughing and spluttering and having difficulties. I took Holly and I had to do a few back blows to help clear the airways and she came back a better colour and had better breathing, so there was a bit of manual clearance of the area and then I gave her a bit of oxygen and monitored her,” he said.

He explained that he was the only one in the garda station to have oxygen and he had it because of his expertise. He added that, if they had come into the station any later, he might not have been there.

“I was just in the office, finishing paperwork. I’d say 10 minutes later, I wouldn’t have been there, I’d have been gone home,” he said.

Another positive to come from the experience was that other gardaí are looking to access medical training, in the event that this type of situation happens again.
“A couple of lads have mentioned it to me, where I did my training and where they could do it, so it might have made a few people think,” he said.

Although Garda Butler, who is originally from Murroe, County Limerick, has been a member of the Red Cross since before he joined the gardaí, he said this is the first time he has used his training to help a baby. He said he has had to administer life-saving efforts to adults before but never a baby.

The family and gardaí have also praised the emergency services personnel who arrived and took over Holly’s care.

By Carol Byrne

]]>55288Emergency landing at Shannonhttps://clarechampion.ie/emergency-landing-shannon-2/
Wed, 04 Oct 2017 09:04:18 +0000http://clarechampion.ie/?p=53251AN American Airlines flight from Miami to Paris was forced to divert to Shannon this morning.
It is understood that an emergency landing was required due to signs of a fire in the cargo hold. Emergency services met the plane upon it landing.

American Airlines have tweeted that they expect the flight to leave Shannon again at around 1pm.

One of the passengers on board tweeted, “Great start to our European adventure. We’re safe. Looks like it was a false alarm.” He also put up a picture of the plane alongside two fire brigades and an ambulance as well as a number of emergency services personnel and passengers.

]]>53251Dramatic scenes as students evacuated from bushttps://clarechampion.ie/dramatic-scenes-as-students-evacuated-from-bus/
Mon, 25 Apr 2016 13:05:46 +0000http://www.clarechampion.ie/?p=30108A bus carrying students from Ennis to Cork burst into flames as it was driven through the town of Buttevant on Monday. The dramatic scenes were captured by eyewitness John Sweeney from Clare who was a passenger in a passing vehicle.
He told The Clare Champion, “There was a lot of smoke, there were no flames but there was a smell of burning rubber. It looked like all the kids were off the bus and everyone was ok.”

It is understood that the driver of the bus has been taken to hospital for treatment, and all of the students are reported as safe and well. Firefighters from Mallow and Charleville arrived at the scene to fight the blaze and the road was closed for a time.

]]>30108Shannon fire under controlhttps://clarechampion.ie/shannon-fire-under-control/
Thu, 14 Apr 2016 14:15:32 +0000http://www.clarechampion.ie/?p=29893A SPOKESMAN for the Clare fire service has said that a fire at Thermo King in Shannon has been brought under control.

Large plumes of smoke have been wafting into the sky above the industrial estate this afternoon, while workers had to leave their posts.

The fire service spokesman said that only units of the Shannon fire brigade had been required to tackle the blaze and that they had brought it under control relatively quickly.

Owen Ryan

]]>29893Emergency landing at Shannonhttps://clarechampion.ie/emergency-landing-shannon/
Mon, 29 Jun 2015 14:13:03 +0000http://www.clarechampion.ie/?p=24569AN Aeromexico Boeing Dreamliner, flying from Mexico to Paris reportedly declared an emergency due to a fire in the cargo hold, before making an emergency landing at Shannon this afternoon.

Emergency crews were awaiting the arrival of the aircraft when it touched down. Shannon is a designated airport for emergency landings and remains open 24 hours a day in case the facilities are needed at any point.

“Shannon Airport can confirm that the emergency response that was activated for the arrival of a diverted Aeromexico flight this afternoon has now been stood down. The Boeing 787 Dreamliner, which was en route from Mexico City to Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport, landed safely at Shannon at 14:50pm. All 193 passengers and crew were disembarked and the aircraft subsequently assessed at a remote location,” an airport spokesman said.

]]>24569Killaloe crew to the rescuehttps://clarechampion.ie/killaloe-crew-to-the-rescue/
Mon, 01 Jun 2015 15:38:03 +0000http://www.clarechampion.ie/?p=23957Members of Killaloe Coast Guard Unit responded to two call outs on Saturday night – one to a man who suffered a suspected heart attack and the second to a cruiser which ran aground on Lough Derg.

The man was airlifted to hospital after he suffered cardiac arrest on board a boat at Banagher. The Killaloe unit was alerted and responded as did the Shannon based search and rescue helicopter, Rescue 115.

Ambulance paramedics and gardaí also went to the scene where the boat had moored at Banagher. The man was removed by the helicopter crew and flown to Galway University Hospital.

While returning to their base at Killaloe, the unit was directed to a second emergency call. A 40-foot cruise boat with five people on board had run aground south of the Silly Island on Lough Derg. Conditions were bad with darkness setting in.

Shore teams were also sent to the area by road and a stricken cruiser was soon located and a Coast Guard volunteer transfer to the vessel to ensure all passengers were safe.

The craft was also checked to ensure it hadn’t been holed or was taking on water. When the vessel was declared undamaged, the cruiser made it’s way, accompanied by the rescue boat, to Ballina Quay where it was safely tied up.

]]>23957Injured surfer taken to hospitalhttps://clarechampion.ie/injured-surfer-taken-to-hospital/
Fri, 24 Apr 2015 09:40:11 +0000http://www.clarechampion.ie/?p=22903A surfer who dislocated his knee when he lost his footing on a slippery pathway is recovering from his injury at University Hospital Limerick.

The incident in Lahinch occurred late Thursday evening when the Doolin Coast Guard team was tasked by MRSC, Valentia. The surfer was returning to shore when he lost his footing on a pathway and dislocated his knee.

The team assembled and set up the climbing equipment. The HSE Ambulance Service was also tasked and arrived on scene a short time later.

Two climbers descended with a stretcher and the injured surfer was treated for pain and shock and his leg was splinted. He was then hauled to the top and taken to the waiting ambulance.

Meanwhile, the Irish Coast Guard Unit at Killaloe were involved in separate emergency incident the previous night when a woman in her 60’s, who had been walking in the Silvermines Hills in Tipperary with her husband, lost her way.

The pair became separated and the alarm was raised at around 11pm after the man had spent up to an hour searching in vain for his wife.

Gardaí commenced a search while other agencies were contacted and volunteers from the Killaloe unit of the Irish Coast Guard, who were returning from a river search in Limerick City, were diverted to the area.

Unaware of extent of the search that was underway, the woman kept walking until she found a public road where she was able to flag down a car which took her home.

The search was stood down at around 2am.

]]>22903Two hospitalised after Shannon incidenthttps://clarechampion.ie/two-hospitalised-shannon-incident/
Fri, 27 Mar 2015 09:50:09 +0000http://www.clarechampion.ie/?p=22212TWO men in their forties are in hospital in Cork following an explosion at Thormac Engineering in the Shannon Industrial estate yesterday.

The men were aged 44 and 49, one was from Shannon and the other from Limerick.It is understood that they suffered head,hand and leg injuries and were in intense pain at the scene. Observers believed one of them had sustained worse injuries than the other.

The incident occurred at around 3.15pm yesterday, while the pair were working with a machine used to inject plastic into moulds. A colleague of theirs made the initial moves to bring the situation under control.

The men were treated at the scene, before being brought by ambulance to the Shannon based coast guard helicopter and flown from there to the burns unit in Cork.